Tamil contiguity to be wedged at district level in East

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 August 2013, 01:04 GMT]The Eastern Provincial Council headed by Chief Minister Najeeb Abdul Majeed of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) is keeping mum while covert plan is being designed to carve out a separate Sinhala district called Seruvila district out of Trincomalee district, by selling lands in coastal areas to Sinhalese businessmen of the South. Valuable lands along the coastal areas in Trincomalee district are being appropriated to be given on lease and to be sold for outsiders by the Colombo government. While on one side the contiguity of the Tamil speaking people are wedged between the North and East provinces by the creation of the Weli-Oya division, on the other side, the contiguity is wedged even within the Eastern Province itself, between the Tamil-speaking people of Trincomalee and Batticaloa. Seruvila comes between Trincomalee and Batticaloa.

Already 558 acres of coastal areas from I'rakka'ndi to Kuchchave'li have been appropriated by the Colombo government under a special gazette notification that the stretch is to be sold to outsiders.

In the meantime, another 390 acres of lands along the coast of Moothoor and Ki'n'niyaa from Uppaa'ru and Mahaweli River are also to be appropriated by the Colombo government with the backing of the occupying Sri Lanka Army. These lands are also to be sold to ‘outsiders’.

The lands that are under appropriation by the Colombo government belong Tamils and Muslims of the district.

Tamils and Muslim sources say that it is the duty of the Eastern Provincial Council to preserve the identity of the Tamil-speaking peoples in the district. But, the council neither has the guts nor the powers to implement province-centric programmes.

Trincomalee district is comprised of three electorates: Trincomalee, Moothoor and Seruwila.

Seruwila came in to existence in 1952 when the then United National Party government led by the first Prime Minister D.S.Senenayake, carried out state aided colonization schemes and settled Sinhalese from the south of the country in the then Tamil dominated Trincomalee district.

Informed sources say that the Colombo government has now planned to create a new administrative district called Seruvila before the next parliament election.

Land appropriation in Trincomalee district is going unabated targeting for the creation of the new Sinhala district.

Already the Ampaa’rai district in the Eastern Province is fast Sinhalicised. Now there will be yet another Sinhala district in the province, aiming for 50 per cent demographic control of the province, where before the so-called independence the percentage of Sinhalese was not even 5 per cent.

Currently there are three districts in the province: Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai. With the creation of Seruvila there will be four, and two out of then will be Sinhala districts.

The East will permanently lose the contiguity of Tamil-speaking people, and there will be only isolated pockets of subjugated Tamils and Muslims, if the New Delhi-Washington-London partnered genocide is not stopped by mass action of Tamils all over the world, said Tamil activists for alternative politics in the island.

Even after seeing the blatant demographic genocide, and knowing very well who are the ultimate culprits blessing the genocide, the so-called Tamil politicians continue listening to them and to the provincial council hoodwink of confirming the genocide, the activists commented.

Whether one meekly listens to them, or don’t listen, if genocide is the course taken up by the ultimate culprits, why should one listen to them at all? Why not boycott them to their face? Declaring non-cooperation with them is not going make one lose anything with the kind of pre-determined injustice practised by them. By doing so, at least one registers the protest to the awareness of the world and inspires the next generation in addressing the struggle rightly. By not doing so, one only blunts even the future struggle at the behest of the ultimate culprits, the activists further said.